Law W A, Mapou R L, Roller T L, Martin A, Nannis E D, Temoshok L R
Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Rockville, Maryland, USA.
J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 1995 Feb;17(1):122-33. doi: 10.1080/13803399508406587.
Psychomotor speed and directed attention were evaluated in 83 human immunodeficiency virus-1-infected individuals (HIV+) and 50 HIV-1 seronegative (HIV-) control participants using simple and choice reaction time (RT) tasks. The simple RT task included 1- and 3-s, irregularly varied preparatory intervals (PI) between the warning and target lights. Relative to the HIV- group, simple and choice RT were significantly slowed in the HIV+ group. Further, again relative to the HIV- controls, the HIV+ group did not show expected faster RT with increased response preparation time in the simple RT task. This also occurred in some HIV+ subjects who did not have psychomotor slowing. These findings suggest that RT performance in HIV-1-infected individuals may reflect separate processes associated with psychomotor slowing and impaired ability to direct attention. Possible neural mechanisms associated with control of these processes are discussed.
